The Acer Vero wireless keyboard & mouse are a well matched combination and good value from Backmarket. I’ve tried the keyboard & mouse on a Windows, Linux, ChromeBook and ChromeBox and it works on all of them. You have to work out how, or if, the special keys of a ChromeBook and a ChromeBox map onto a Windows keyboard but that’s par for the course.
Lots of standard things about the keyboard & mouse: Batteries included for the two devices, uses a 2.4 GHz USB receiver, joint function/action keys across the top of the keyboard, Windows and a right-click key either side of the space bar and a two button mouse with a scroll wheel.
The keyboard is a compact type, so no number pad. It is already raised at a modest angle but you can enhance that with two legs that can be swung out under the keyboard. The keys are rubber and for a non-typist are pleasant, and very quiet, to use.
The mouse is also compact and has a low profile, so no arch to fit into your palm. I find I use it like an Apple Magic mouse, so using the length of my finger to right and left click, rather than the tip. The top cover lifts off almost too easily to allow access to the battery and the storage slot for the USB receiver.
The Vero range is Acer’s attempt at showing it is responding to consumer concern of IT waste. The most obvious feature is the ‘Post Consumer Recycled’ body of the keyboard and mouse. That is, it’s partly made from recycled plastic and has a distinct colour and is ‘freckled’ with other coloured plastics. The Enter key, the E and R keys and the mouse wheel are all bright yellow with the E and R letters reversed on the keys. This is part of the Vero theme seen on other devices like their laptops and ChromeBooks in the same range. For me this is a welcome sign that manufacturers are taking some steps in mitigating the waste problem and I’m pleased they make a strong feature of it. I find the Vero theme stops me being precious over the device and I’m less bothered about everyday wear and tear that you would notice on shiny black casings, for instance. I found the reversed E and R keys visually distracting at first but you ignore it after a while.
This is a robust, pleasant to use keyboard and slightly less robust mouse that show one manufacturer’s effort to use recycled plastics. A decent buy for £25
